


breathe (rewritten)

by gooseberryfox



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28332657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gooseberryfox/pseuds/gooseberryfox
Summary: Her eyes had been gradually becoming more and more fogged over, and at this point, she could barely see. She couldn’t hear much detail, but she knew that there was a lot of noise and a couple of voices. She didn’t try to understand what they were saying, she knew it was useless to try anyways.
Relationships: Tim Bradford & Lucy Chen
Kudos: 27





	breathe (rewritten)

**Author's Note:**

> hi there!! this is a rewrite of an idea i had a while ago when i was not having the best writing day :))  
> same plot, but more descriptions and a few new things thrown in!
> 
> i hope u enjoy!!
> 
> (also thanks to @pineapplecandycanehater77 for liking this story hehe)

The hum of the fluorescent lights above Lucy had been droning on the entire time she had been sitting in the briefing room. She had tuned out from the actual briefing a long while ago and was trying to focus on something. Anything, actually. 

Her eyes had been gradually becoming more and more fogged over, and at this point, she could barely see. She couldn’t hear much detail, but she knew that there was a lot of noise and a couple of voices. She didn’t try to understand what they were saying, she knew it was useless to try anyways. 

She had been frozen for a while, and while she had made attempts to move, they had all been largely unsuccessful. 

After giving up on trying to focus again, she allowed herself to slip back into the depths of her mind and rest there, safe from the real world and all of the problems and challenges it held. She eventually had to come back to her senses, but trying to now would only exhaust her. 

So, she sat, stone solid, for the rest of the briefing, only barely aware of her surroundings. She began to forget where she was, which made her heartbeat spike and her mind begin to run endless ideas of where she could be. Now was not a good time to be stuck in her brain. 

She became aware of her breaths, and how they had become increasingly shallow and noisy, almost sounding like a rusty hinge when she inhaled. She couldn’t tell if she was disturbing anyone, but she hoped nobody had noticed. 

There was a sudden burst of noise around her, she couldn’t identify where the source was but she couldn’t control herself when she brought her hands to her ears and waited for the noise to go away. If she hadn’t been suspicious before, now she had absolutely drawn attention to herself. 

Once again, her attempts to move were basically useless. They did nothing but make her more fatigued. So she sat and waited. For what, she didn’t know yet. 

The noise died down, but there was still a voice swimming around her head.  
“-chen? Are you listening to me?”  
The first words she was able to make out were those from her angry TO.  
She tried to form a word, but all she could manage was an uncomfortable hum. 

“I don’t know what you’re doing, boot, but I am not amused.”  
She registered the scrape of a chair along the floor and then, with her limited vision, was able to see Tim sit across from her. 

“What’s going on, Chen?” He asks, his usual gruff voice forgotten and in its place a softer, more concerned one. 

Lucy closed her eyes before opening and closing her mouth a few times. She tried to speak, and only one word came out.  
“Dissacosiated.” 

Tim nodded in acknowledgment. He leant back into his chair and simply waited. He knew there was nothing he could do at this point other than to simply be there for Lucy if she needed him. 

“C-can you grab me a pen and uh… um... paper?” She asked after a while.  
He nodded quickly and stood up to collect the materials before sliding them over to her.  
She uncapped the pen, and with shaking hands tried to legibly describe what was happening and what was going through her head. 

She slid the paper back to Tim, her eyes slowly coming back into focus. She could see him furrow his brow as he tried to decode whatever she had written down.  
She kept a mental note to remember that when your hands are shaky your writing becomes practically illegible. 

“Boot, you coming back to us yet?” Tim asked, not unkindly.  
“Yeah, yeah a bit.” She says.  
“Good. Are you ok to stand up?”  
“Uh,” she thinks for a bit then deciding, says; “I might be able to.”  
She moves to get up and as she does, she feels herself become unstable and sway a bit before almost collapsing back into her chair. That would have been if Tim hadn’t caught her and guided her surprisingly gently back down.  
“I guess we should stay here for a while, then.” He says, and Lucy swore she could hear a bit of humour in his tone. 

The two sit there for quite a while before Lucy declares that she is fine.  
Tim looked at her skeptically, but ultimately gave in and joined her as they walked out of the briefing room. 

“Hey, Tim?” Lucy said on the way to the shop. “Thanks for being there for me today.”  
“Anytime, boot.” He says simply before walking ahead of Lucy.  
She smiles and follows after him.  
Maybe he wasn’t so tough after all.


End file.
